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[balanga]

For some days now I am having major problems accessing websites.

The same happens from each of three laptops which access the Internet via file server which provides an internet gateway.

From each system I can ping hosts by IP address or hostname, but using a browser it is painfully or and most often pages don't load at all.

What should I look at the find the cause?

At the moment my only way getting any reasonable access is to hook up a laptop to a phone and set up a USB thether

 

[balanga]

There must be something causing a blockage on my file server.

Why would I get 'This site can't be reached' when using a laptop connected through my gateway when trying access my gmail account even though I can ping mail.google.com with no packet loss?

I can access my account without any problem when connecting directly from another laptop through my USB tethered phone.

It doesn't look like a routing problem, BICBW. What else could it be?

 

[eternal_noob]

IPv4 vs IPv6 shenanigans? Try to disable IPv6 completely and try again.

 

[balanga]

IPv4 vs IPv6 shenanigans? Try to disable IPv6 completely and try again.

Disable it how and where?

 

[eternal_noob]

Edit /etc/rc.conf and add

ipv6_activate_all_interfaces="NO"
ipv6_network_interfaces="none"
ipv6_defaultrouter="NO"
ipv6_gateway_enable="NO"

then reboot.

 

[balanga]

I have just noticed that my file server's date got reset to 2012,

Is this likely to have had an effect an effect on accessing web pages?

I have updated the date to don't perceive any difference in performance.

 

[richardtoohey2]

You don't mention anything about operating systems or browsers, so rather difficult to say.

An incorrect date can impact things like https, definitely.

 

[balanga]

FreeBSD 15.1 and Chromium,

I guess the problem would have started when the file server's date was reset, but a reboot does clear things down after updating the time.

 

[richardtoohey2]

I have updated the date to don't perceive any difference in performance.

but a reboot does clear things down after updating the time.

Not sure if you are saying the problem is now resolved or not?

 

[SirDice]

I have just noticed that my file server's date got reset to 2012,

Is this likely to have had an effect an effect on accessing web pages?

SSL/TLS is certainly going to fail (server's certificate would be valid in the future)

 

[balanga]

SSL/TLS is certainly going to fail (server's certificate would be valid in the future)

What should I do to rectify the situation?

I don't understand why the time/date on a file server would affect any systems connected to it since they themselves had the correct time and were able to access the Internet and Web pages using ping.

 

[T-Aoki]

What should I do to rectify the situation?

I don't understand why the time/date on a file server would affect any systems connected to it since they themselves had the correct time and were able to access the Internet and Web pages using ping.

Hint: Date of certificates used for https. Certificates have date / time when it become effective and when to be expired.
An example (of this forums) below. See Validity.
Browsers compares local time to be between "Not Before" and "Not After" to check whether the certificate is usable "now" or not, usually before proceeding further confirmations.
And if you're using proxies (your file server does?), it could check it, too.

 

[balanga]

I'm not sure where this information is held.

As far as using my file server as a proxy for attatched clients goes, I don't think that applies as the file server only provides a gateway to the internet.

 

[sko]

provides a gateway to the internet.

and dns? this also requires a correct system time (just as many other services)


edit: if dhcp is also running on that "fileserver" (i'm not going down the rabbit hole asking why a fileserver is used as an internet gateway...) all lease timestamps will also be invalid and most likely will cause havoc...

 

[SirDice]

As far as using my file server as a proxy for attatched clients goes

A proxy creates a new connection to the destination. Client connects to the proxy, proxy connects to the destination. These are two separate traffic flows.

 

[balanga]

and dns? this also requires a correct system time (just as many other services)


edit: if dhcp is also running on that "fileserver" (i'm not going down the rabbit hole asking why a fileserver is used as an internet gateway...) all lease timestamps will also be invalid and most likely will cause havoc...

I run dnsmasq on my file server to provide IP addresses to clients. I'm running my own homelab so take full responsibity for any problems which occur.

I have not restarted it specifically since I updated the time on that machine but suspect that running
service netif restart would have done that.

What would I need to check to ensure any timestamps are valid? Would running
dhclient em0 on each client bring things up to date?

 

[balanga]

After resetting the time on my server and rebooting as well as using a different phone for USB tethering, I am back to normal although not exactly sure what the specific cause was. It may have been a combination of one or more factors.

In any case, I'm marking this problem fixed.